Pugung Raharjo (sometimes called Pugungraharjo) is a 30 hectares archaeological site in the regency of

East Lampung East Lampung Regency is a regency (''kabupaten'') of Lampung Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. It has an area of 5,325.03 km2 and a population of 951,639 people at the 2010 census and 1,110,340 at the 2020 census. The regency seat is at the town ...

regency of

Lampung Province Lampung (Lampung: ), officially the Province of Lampung ( id, Provinsi Lampung) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. It has a short border with the province of Bengkulu to the northwest, and a ...

in South

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. The site was discovered in 1957. There is an ancient

terraced In agriculture, a terrace is a piece of sloped plane that has been cut into a series of successively receding flat surfaces or platforms, which resemble steps, for the purposes of more effective farming. This type of landscaping is therefore ...

megalithic A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

structure, also known as Pugung Raharjo Pyramid. There other megalithic structures from the 12th to 16th century CE, including

Menhirs A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be foun ...

and

Dolmen A dolmen () or portal tomb is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic (40003000 BCE) and were somet ...

, as well as prehistoric remains dating back to 2500 BC. It is locally known as the "Taman Purbakala Pugung Raharjo" (Pugung Raharjo Archaeological Park).Flame Rozario
Pyramids in Indonesia? It's not just Gunung Padang
30 May 2016. It is situated approximately 50 km from the provincial capital,

Bandar Lampung Bandar Lampung (Lampung: , ''Kutak Bandarlampung'', formerly Dutch: ''Oosthaven'', lit. "Eastern Harbor") is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of Lampung. Located on the southern tip of Sumatra, Bandar Lampung was original ...

History

The site was discovered by transmigrants in 1957. Research on the site started in 1968. Further research was conducted in 1973, 1975, 1977, and 1980. Viewed from chronological, artifacts, and features, the site was considered unique and variative. This is because many relics from megalithic (circa 2500 BC), Hindu-Buddhist, and Islamic period were found in the site. A

bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood. In the Early Buddhist schools ...

sculpture found in the site showed that the site was repurposed as a Buddhist sacred place after the religion spread to Indonesia.Sakai, Takashi. (2019). The Foreign Religious Monuments and the Mountain Worship in the Southeast Asian Archipelago. Artifacts unearthed at the site suggest that the area was strongly under the influence of the Palembang-based

Sriwijaya Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...

Empire. Finds of beads and Chinese porcelain indicate that the people of the area were also linked to international trade networks which visited the nearby Sunda Strait. The site was uncovered in the 1950s when transmigrants from

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

and

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

moved into the area and started to clear the jungle. The site is now preserved as a national monument.

Design

The site is surrounded by trenches and protective earthworks. The site was clearly a fortified community. This was probably to necessary to protect locals from attacks from pirates passing through the nearby Sunda Strait, a major waterway within ancient Indian Ocean trade networks. Within the walls is a cluster of phallic, stone megaliths. The most substantial remaining monument is a large, terraced earthwork temple. There are various smaller temple mounds within the walls. A small museum is the nearby village of Pugung Raharjo houses a collection of finds from the site, including some impressive statues that are often described as being 'Polynesian' in style.

References

# “Sumatra Handbook". Published by Footprint Handbooks April 2000. {{Lampung Archaeological sites in Indonesia Buildings and structures in Lampung Former populated places in Indonesia Prehistoric Indonesia

History

Design

See also

References